Escalating border clashes trigger Thai air force strikes into Cambodia

Cambodian soldiers reload the BM-21 multiple rocket launcher in Preah Vihear province on 24 July. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters of the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) have launched raids into Cambodia targeting rear echelon supply bases of the Cambodian military following weeks of mounting tension and the eruption of cross-border small arms and artillery fire at multiple points along the border.

The RTAF strikes on the morning of 24 July involved six F-16A/B aircraft based at Ubon Ratchathani Air Base and were triggered by more than two hours of cross-border fire by both countries' ground forces, which resulted in Thai civilian casualties.

According to an update from the 2nd Army Region headquarters of the Royal Thai Army (RTA) that covers northeastern Thailand, the F-16s were scrambled to respond to clashes around the Chong An Ma border crossing between Ubon Ratchathani and Cambodia's Preah Vihear province and at 1058 h local time struck the headquarters of the 8th and 9th support brigades of the Royal Cambodia Army (RCA), which were “neutralised”.

Ground clashes had begun at least two hours earlier around the disputed Ta Muen Temple some 160 km further west on the border between Thailand's Surin and Cambodia's Oddar Meanchey provinces.

According to Cambodia's Ministry of National Defence (MND), RTA forces “began provocations” laying barbed wire near the temple at 0630 h and 0846 h local time, after firing warning shots into the air, opened fire at Cambodian troops, with hostilities then spreading to other points on the border.

The MND did not indicate whether the Thai airstrikes on the two brigade headquarters had resulted in RCA casualties.